Azure

So finally my Azure was born in December, and while I'm writing this note he's bouncing in my lap - almost three months old. People always ask me what's my son's name, how to pronounce it etc.

His name is Azure, pronounced Uh-zooo-ray, with the stress on the 'zooo' not the 'ray'. I didn't accent the 'e', because then people would put the stress in the wrong place. I know there is some intellectual snobbery linked to the pronunciation of the word 'azure in English, where 'people who know' say it's pronounced 'asia' not 'uh-zure', but his name is Ah-zoo-ray like 'blue ray' and 'Hip hip hooray!'

So where did this name come from? My easy answer is that it is a colour. Better yet, the name of the blue for the United Nations, which I found online. But he's actually named after somebody.

The boy in the photo is Azure, who was one of my unofficial guides while I was in the town of Bolgatanga in Northern Ghana. That Azure was thirteen but looked like he was ten. A bright boy, but very quiet and serious. In the 2 -3 days I spent with him, he didn't smile much, the smile in the photo was uncharacteristic. A melancholic boy with a beautiful name. One day to make him smile I told him that he had such a pretty name that I'd name my son after him. So said, so done. Three years later, I have my own little Azure a very happy, bouncing baby boy.

So the truth is I really don't know what his name means :-o I still give people the easy story, but now you know he's named after little Azure in Bolgatanga.